


Let's Be Friends

by yikesola



Category: Phandom/The Fantastic Foursome (YouTube RPF)
Genre: 2011, Alternate Universe, M/M, meet cute, non youtubers au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-16
Updated: 2020-09-16
Packaged: 2021-03-07 17:47:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,807
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26501638
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/yikesola/pseuds/yikesola
Summary: Phil has missed the bus back to his flat by only a few minutes and he’s just exhausted enough to take an Uber. But he’s also still skint, so an Uber pool is a fine compromise.A fic about meet cutes and cramped spaces.
Relationships: Dan Howell/Phil Lester
Comments: 40
Kudos: 100





	Let's Be Friends

**Author's Note:**

> Betaed by the superb [ahappydnp](http://ahappydnp.tumblr.com) 🥰

Phil isn’t sure whether to be annoyed that his job interview took up all of his afternoon, or if he should be pleased. Like, maybe it’s a good sign that they really liked him. Or maybe they do that with every person who comes in to interview and it doesn’t mean anything. Maybe they spend a long time talking and then going over the person’s portfolio and then taking a very long tour of the office and shaking hands with everybody and being offered a coffee so many times that even if Phil could get over his awkwardness to accept one it’d be crazy at this point. Maybe he’ll never hear from them again. Not even a “thanks but no thanks” sort of email. 

He also isn’t sure that would be the worst thing in the world. He needs a job, yeah, but he also wants to work on something his mum can see. 

He hasn’t even come out to her. How’s he supposed to tell her that what drew him to the job was the description that the applicant must have “an appreciation of the naked male” and that he applied without actually expecting to hear back. 

Whether it’s his future job or not, the point is he’s missed the bus back to his flat by only a few minutes and he’s just exhausted enough to take an Uber. 

But he’s also still skint, so an Uber pool is a fine compromise. 

Phil’s the last person in the car, it’s full to bursting. He’s starting to regret his choice when it pulls up and he sees this. He’s starting to regret his entire fucking life when his messenger bag spills open as he tries to climb in without drawing attention from the other riders. 

The guy sat in the middle of the backseat takes out his earbuds and leans down to help Phil pick up his crap. It’s nice of him, but the anxious alarm bells in Phil’s brain are clogging his throat and he can’t thank the guy. The very cute guy. The stupidly nice guy that smiles a dimpled smile when he hands over Phil’s junk and shakes his head a little to move his brown fringe out of his eyes. 

-

Dan was thoroughly ready to turn his music up real loud and stare at his phone screen until this car full of strangers dropped him off at his destination. He was ready to tunnel his vision and even breathe quietly if it would mean getting through the handful of minutes without actual interaction. 

And then the door opens and this whirlwind of a MySpace emo leftover, with black skinny jeans and a button-up plaid under a suit jacket that’s too big for him, spills his bag all over the seat. 

Dan figures the easiest way to get the Uber moving again and this painful pseudo-socialization over with is to help this guy get his stuff together. He doesn’t mean to look. He really doesn’t. 

He’s just nosy. 

And the _Final Fantasy_ pins on his bag make Dan want to have a social interaction like he hasn’t felt the urge for in months. 

He just hasn’t found anyone at uni he can be bothered to talk to about, like, actual interests. Getting drunk and kissing is one thing he’s managed to pass the time with when he isn’t locking himself in his room. He doesn’t have to know if the other person has held a video game controller before to enjoy that. But he suddenly feels like when you find the only other kid at a boring adult function your parents drag you to and you bond instantly because of the Winnie the Pooh on his shirt. 

The pull of _You like this thing, I like this thing, let’s be friends_.

But his social skills are rusty as hell, and they were never that good to begin with. It’s just that the almost-friends he had before coming to uni were never people he wanted to impress. And obviously he wants to impress this hot guy whose arm is pressed all the way against his because of the cramped space. 

Dan presses play on his iPod and hopes his face is safely neutral. 

-

Phil didn’t realize he could regret something he already thoroughly regretted, but then the car hits traffic. Full-stop traffic. There’s too much rain pouring outside the windows to convince him to just hop out. He and the other four people in the car are stuck here. Stuck in stilted politeness, in heavy silence. 

The driver has his eyes straight ahead of him, like if he gives the traffic a stern enough stare it will dissipate. Phil doesn’t think it will, but he’s happy the driver is willing to try. The old man in the passenger seat is reading a dense newspaper. He’s holding it up close to his coke-bottle glasses and huffing every paragraph or so. 

There’s a middle-aged woman behind the passenger seat. She reminds Phil of his mum, but he thinks it’s probably just the haircut. She’s looking out the window. Phil wonders if she’s looking at different raindrops and betting which ones are racing. Or if she’s just looking. 

The guy next to him is shaking his knee a little anxiously. It’s the knee that isn’t on the same side of Phil, and the woman has her legs both folded against the car door, but Phil watches its quick movements. 

Through the sounds of the rain and the windshield wipers and the heater blasting air onto the glass which keeps threatening to fog up, Phil thinks he hears something he recognizes. 

-

Dan feels pressure on his arm which is cramped against the emo guy’s. He thinks he must be taking up too much space. He almost always thinks that. He tries to shift a little without encroaching further into the woman’s space to his right. 

But then he feels the pressure again. Like it’s intentional. Like the guy is nudging him. 

Dan takes out one earbud and raises an eyebrow. 

“‘Space Dementia’?” the guy asks, pointing to the earbud and naming the playing song. 

“You like Muse?” Dan asks, stupidly, as though loads of people don’t love Muse. 

The guy smiles a wide, crooked smile. “Yeah,” he says. “Saw them in London last year.” 

“Me too,” Dan smiles. “Small world.” 

“Small car,” he laughs, straightening his posture so his head brushes the ceiling. Dan knows if he unbent his own spine, it would do the same. 

“Yeah,” he says. He likes this, this easy back and forth. He doesn’t know how to keep it going, but he hands Phil the earbud still in his hand. 

Stupidly. What stranger wants to swap earwax? 

Apparently this stranger. He puts it in his ear and asks, “You have ‘Starlight’?” 

-

With only one headphone each, Phil decides to keep talking as they listen to his requested song. He says his own name and finds out the guy is called Dan. He teases Dan for his southern accent and asks him what he’s doing all the way up in Manchester. He feels a little intimidated when Dan tells him he’s up here studying law and Phil got himself a fun degree and just had a job interview to work in porn. Dan’s smart, clearly. He’s gonna get bored with Phil before this freaking ride is over with. 

“So where are you headed?” Dan asks after Phil asked the same. Dan had said he was going to a party, but hadn’t said anything more. 

“Home,” Phil says. “Had a job interview and I’m beat.” 

“Bit late in the day for a job interview,” Dan notes. 

“Bit early for a party,” Phil smiles. 

Dan shrugs. “I anticipated this mess,” he gestures towards the rows and rows of cars still in front of them. “And I didn’t want to sit in my room any more.” 

Even though he’s drained of every social ounce he had today, Phil still says what he thinks must be the appropriate thing, “Well, the party should be fun. If you ever get to it.” 

Dan snorts. It’s so loud the man in the passenger seat actually looks up from her newspaper, but only for a second. “I doubt it.”

“Not the partying sort?” Phil asks.

“Not the anything sort. I’ve spent the last month skipping lectures and playing _Halo_ in my pants.” 

Phil laughs. He hopes Dan doesn’t think it’s a mean laugh. He hopes Dan knows it’s a _been there… a little bit still there…_ sort of laugh. 

A little rosy patch by Dan’s jaw flares up. But so does a slow smile. So Phil thinks he knows. 

-

They’ve moved about five blocks all the while Dan and Phil have been chatting. “There’s your favourite place,” Dan jokes, pointing out the window at a coffee shop he had seen a punch card for when he helped Phil gather his stuff. 

“Ohh,” Phil groans. “I never had my afternoon coffee. That’s dangerous.” He puts his hand flat against the window. “I want it,” he whines. 

Dan laughs at the theatrics, but he’s also pretty sure based on the amount of punches on that card that Phil isn’t totally joking. “Go get it,” he says. “We’ll probably still be sitting here by the time you get back.” 

“Traffic isn’t _that_ bad,” the driver pipes up. 

Phil looks thoughtful. Dan sees his adams apple bob with a big swallow. “Yeah, I think I’ll get out,” he says. Dan is not expecting the disappointment he feels. Then Phil goes on. “Wanna come with?” 

He looks as nervous as Dan feels. And Dan thinks that probably means something. Something good, like Phil feels the same kind of pull Dan does. 

“Yeah,” he says, ending the ride on his phone. “Thanks, mate,” he says to the driver. 

-

Dan grabs Phil’s hand when they climb out of the car and run to the pavement in the rain. Phil doesn’t question that because it could just be the fact they were running amongst standstill cars that prompted the reach. 

But then he keeps holding it once they’re in the coffee shop. And when they sit on the sofa with their warm drinks, Dan sits as close as he had in the Uber even though there’s infinitely more space here. 

“How badly do you need to get to that party?” Phil asks. He’d like to stay and talk with Dan. He’d like to stay long enough to order a second coffee. He’d like to stay long enough to eventually ask him to dinner. To ask Dan for his number. To see him again. 

Dan grins. “I could never show and no one there would notice.” 

“Try not to sound like you’re _begging_ to get kidnapped,” Phil laughs. 

“Just lulling you into a false sense of security,” Dan pokes Phil’s side.

**Author's Note:**

> thanks for reading— come say hi on [tumblr](http://yikesola.tumblr.com/post/629454192100196352/lets-be-friends) !


End file.
